Castle Troop Disposal
When attacking an enemy base during a clan war, disposing with the enemy's castle troops promptly can be the difference between a 3-star triumph and a zero star disaster. Clan war attacks allow the enemy base to be scouted. Use the scouting function to study the base layout. Tapping the enemy clan castle while in scouting mode will cause a white circle to become visible with the clan castle at its center. That white circle represents the "trigger radius" of the castle, the trip wire which, once crossed by an attacker, will cause castle troops to emerge and engage the attacking force. It is often advisable to pick an advantageous spot to spawn one or more of your troops to cross the "trigger radius" to draw out the enemies. Once troops have emerged from the castle they will flock to the nearest attacking force. Assuming your first deployed troop was killed soon after hitting the trigger radius, you can spawn an archer in a relatively safe area of the enemy base, near an edge where enemy weapons cannot reach your troop. The idea is to get the castle troops to flock toward your troop in that relatively safe area. You want your troops to be able to target and kill those castle troops without having to also take defensive fire from enemy mortars, cannons, or towers. Typically a batch of archers and/or barbarians and/or wizards will emerge from the castle. Once you have lured them to your chosen "kill zone" deploy your forces, usually archers are best, in an arc around those castle troops to eliminate them as quickly as possible. Sometimes a dragon will pop out of the castle. If so, archers and wizards can make an efficient kill and move on. One important caution must be kept in mind. If a castle has 20 or 25 slots filled mainly with archers and/or barbarians, it is very likely that only part of the castle force will emerge when the trigger radius is first breached. After killing that first batch check to see if any additional castle troops are laying in wait by again hitting the trigger radius. If a 2nd batch of castle troops emerge, dispose of them as you did the 1st batch. Very rarely a 3rd batch of castle troops must also be dealt with. Sometimes, when using a dragon spam attack or a combination Golem-Wizard-Pekka attack, skilled fighters will not waste time drawing out and killing castle troops but will simply overpower them with the force of a massive wave attack. Also lightning spells can be very effective on castle troops. Once they are drawn out of the castle hit them with one or two lightning spells to eradicate an entire flock at once. I sometimes like to use dragons against castle troops. I draw the castle troops to the trigger radius with a barbarian or giant, the deploy 2 or 3 dragons to immediately fry them under cover of a healing spell. I then quickly deploy a batch of hog riders to take advantage of the healing spell to kill enemy weapons in the vicinity of my dragons and then move on to kill, hopefully, nearby air defenses. I have also seen players use their King, under a healing spell, to dispatch castle troops. Watch all the replays you can and pay close attention to how others deal with or fail in handling the castle troops. Study and experience will help you master the castle troop problem pretty quickly. Attacking a base in multi-player mode is just like the clan war attack EXCEPT you don't get to scout the base or display the clan castle trigger radius. Instead, visualize where the trigger radius must be based on the locatioon of the clan castle, then proceed with the same strategies as outlined above. If you have other thoughts, suggestions, cautions or corrections, please add your comments to this page.